Zipper fastened trouser fly



Sept. 1, 1953 J. DE W. KNOTTER ZIPPER FASTENED TROUSER FLY Filed Jan. 16, 1952 INVENTOR TTORNEY .wawwwwwwwww Patented Sept. 1, 1953 ZIPPER FASTENED TROUSER FLY James De Witt Knotter, Cheshire, Conn., assignor to Scovill Manufacturing Company, Waterbury, Conn., a corporation of Connecticut Application January 16, 1952, Serial No. 266,691

2 Claims.

This invention relates to trouser or constructions incorporating a zipper fly slide fastener.

Zipper fasteners have been employed in trouser flies very widely for many years. The usual construction has followed very closely along the lines of U. S. patent to Craig, 1,960,218, May 22, 1934. In that patent it was recognized that it is desirable to curve the lower portion of the zipper toward the right. This was attempted to be done according to the patent by stretching the goods of the fly and leg members when sewing the fastener tape to the right side, and while on the left side stretching the free edge of the tape but not stretching the other goods while sewing in the left fastener tape. Besides the difficulty of these operations the result was never a really satisfactory job because there would be always a tendency for the material to return to its original unstretched condition.

The object, therefore, of my invention is to provide an improved construction which will eliminate the difficulties heretofore encountered and provide a fly construction which will retain permanently its desired smooth curved conformation.

There are other advantages of my improved construction which will hereinafter more fully appear.

With these and other objects in view the invention will be readily understood from the following description of one preferred embodiment shown in the drawing wherein:

Fig. 1 is a front elevation of the upper portion of a pair of trousers embodying the invention and showing the fly portion partially open.

Fig. 2 is a view similar to Fig. 1 showing the fly portion completely open.

Fig. 3 is a cross sectional view through the fly construction taken along the line 3-3 of Fig. 1 as it would appear if trousers were closed and on an enlarged scale.

Figs. 4 and 5 are rear elevations of the left and right fly constructions, respectively, shown on an enlarged scale and with parts broken away, and

Fig. 6 is a plan view of the novel form of zipper or slide fastener employed in my improved construction.

In the drawing the numeral I 0 refers generally to a. pair of trousers to which the invention is applied, this pair of trousers I0 includes a right leg piece II and a left leg piece I2. A right fly or under-flap I3 is secured to the edge of the right leg so as to form a prolongation of its surface and the left fly or over-flap I4 is sewed be- 2 hind the left leg I2 as shown in Fig. 1, and the lower portion of each fly flap is cut on a curve as indicated at I3a and Ma, all in the customary manner.

The novel form of slide fastener as it appears before incorporated into the garment is best shown in Fig. 6 and includes a right stringer I5 and a left stringer I6. The right stringer I5 consists of the strip of tape I! having a beaded edge to which is attached the fastener elements I8. This tape I 1 is of the usual construction and of the normal width. The left stringer also includes a strip of tape I9 having the beaded edge to which are attached fastener elements complemental to the elements 18. The stringers I5 and I6 are connected and disconnected in the usual manner by a, slider 2 I. The tape I9 for the purpose of this invention is made approximately one-half the width of the tape I1 for reasons as will be explained later.

Following the usual custom, and as more fully described in the aforementioned Craig patent, the right zipper tape I! is placed face down on the front surface of the right leg I I and the right fly is laid face down on the fastener so that the curved edges of the fly and leg piece coincide and a line of stitching 22 is run along the edge joining the right fly, right zipper tape and right leg. During this operation the zipper tape is merely held in a curved position without any undue stretching of the goods. The tape may assume a slightly puckered shape as seen at 23 in Fig. 5, but this is not objectionable. The fly and tape are now turned face up producing the fold 24 in the right leg piece and of course hiding the seam 22 from view and the right zipper tape is largely concealed from view. The inner lining or facing material 25 is next applied and its right folded edge (left as viewed in Fig. 3) projects beyond the fly flap I3 and is secured by a line of stitching 26 which passes through the right zipper tape and the right leg piece. Thus the right zipper tape must be wide enough to be well caught by this second line of stitching with the result that in practice this right tape must have an overall width of about seven-sixteenths of an inch.

With respect to the construction of the left side the narrow zipper tape I9 is sewn in place on the inner face of the left fly flap I I by single line of stitching 21 and when approaching the bottom end the stringer is easily held in place to assume the proper curve to conform to the curve on the right side. It is desirable to keep this line of stitching back about one-eighth of an inch from the metal fastener elements and to 3 keep it about one-eighth of an inch from the edge of the tape so that it will securely hold the tape. It has been discovered that a tape of one-quarter of an inch width can readily be held to the proper curvature without any undue stretching of the tape material, while at the same time allowing the beaded edge to lie smoothly. In the usual case, however, where the left tape is the same as the right tape, that isabout seven-sixteenths of an inch in width, the necessary curvature can be obtained only by some abnormal stretching of theouter edge of the tape and in such case the garment will not stay permanently inthe desired curved shape.

Another advantage of having the left tape only about one-half the width of the right tape is for the sake of heater appearance because the whole of this left tape is necessarily exposed when the fly is open. A single line of stitching 21 is all that is required for strength purposes and suflices without the. expenseof an additional line; of stitching usually required merely to hold inplace the extra width of tape.

My improved construction thus results for the firsttime, in a. garment, which has remarkably smooth fly appearance and will. stay more or lesspermanentl-y in that condition. At the same time there is no necessity for altering the manner of constructing the right half of the fly where the usual if not absolutely necessary procedure requires twolines of stitching through the zipper tape, thus requiring; a tape which may be described as more or less standard. in width.

While only, one form of the invention hasbeen shown and the structure described in detail, it is obvious that this. isznottol be considered limited to the exact form disclosed and that changes may be made therein-within. the scope of what is. claimed withoutdeparting from, the spirit of the invention.

I claim:

1. An improved zipper fastened; fly constructioncomprising a, right leg piece, the edge of which is folded under and. has an inwardly directed curve near the bottom, a right fly. flap one edgeof which ispositioned undersaid foldededge of the right leg piece and which protrudes to form. a prolongation of, the right 16%; surface, a line of stitching: connecting said edges of. the

fly flap and leg piece, a right zipper tape positioned between said folded edge of the right leg piece and said edge of the right fly flap and extending under said leg piece a substantial distance beyond said edge of the fly flap, the bottom portion of said zipper tape curving to correspond to the curvature of the right leg piece, a facing extending across the inner surface of said fly flap and also asubstantial distance beyond said edge of the fly flap, a second line of stitching extending through said facing, said zipper tape and said folded edge of the right leg piece, said right tape being sufliciently wide that it will extend beyond the folded edge of the right leg piece sufiiciently to enable a slider to move freely over the zipper and so that it will extend under said folded edge sufficiently to catch securely both lines of stitching, a left leg piece out near its bottom on a curve to correspond to the curved edge of the right leg piece, a left fly flap secured to the inner face of the left leg piece and a left zipper tape secured to, the. inner face. of said left fly flap by a single line of stitching, the bottom portion of said zipper tape being curved to correspond to said other curves, saidleft zipper tape being substantially narrower than the right tape, having only such width that the single line of stitching is sufiiciently spaced from the fastener elements to permit free movement of said, slider and to allow the tape to extend-on the other side of the stitching only a suiiicient distance to insure that the tape is securely heldby the stitching. a

2. An improved zipper fastened fly construction according toclaim 1 wherein said right zipper tape is of approximately the standard seven-sixteenths of an inch in width for the purposes described in claim 1 and wherein the left zipper tape is only about one-quarter of, an inch, in width for the purposes referred to in claim 1.

JAMES- DE WITT KNOTTER.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS Marinsky Oct. 15, 1940 

